IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS ABOUT THE MOVIE, STOP READING. The story is basically about two fathers and two sons. The first father turns to crime when he can't come up with enough money to give his baby boy the things he wants to buy for him. The second father is on the police force and lies about an interaction with a criminal, he is hailed as a hero, tries to crack down on corruption in his department, and eventually makes his way up to district attorney. They both are separated from their women, the first by death, the second by divorce. The first son grows up without knowing his father (who is dead), raised by his real mother and his step father. The second son grows up detached from his father, wanting to be like him, but not having opportunities to be with him or having anything in common with him.
The interesting developments begin to form when the sons become friends at high school and they get in trouble together. The former-cop wants his son to distance himself from the now-dead-criminal's son, but of course he does the opposite because his dad is not present in his life. They do drugs together and throw a party. They both resent their parents, but for different reasons. The first boy wants to know who his father was, but his mother and father in law refuse to tell him anything. The second boy wants to be like his father and live a normal life, but his father's job in the spotlight keeps their lives public and different.
The first boy meets with somebody who knew his father, gets some of his old possessions and finally begins to understand who his dad was. He steals some drugs for the first time after finding out that his dad stole money from banks before he was shot by the second father who was a cop at the time. He follows in his fathers footsteps by taking out his anger on the second boy (after he finds out that boy's father was the one who shot his own father) by attacking him in his house and kidnapping his father and taking him out to the forest. He almost shoots the second father in the woods with a gun he got from a drug dealer, but doesn't at the last second. He leaves town, leaves his mom a picture of him as a baby with her and his father, gets a motorcycle and drives west. The movie ends with him just driving off with no idea where he would go or what he would do, which is how his father started the movie, a travelling motorcycle circus stunt driver. The second boy ends the movie finally smiling and looking proud of his father as he speaks in front of a large crowd. Everything seems to end well for the second family, but I don't think it really does.
Both families were hiding secrets that defined their lives, the first hid the father's true identity from the son, the second hid the fact that the father had killed a man without purpose and was hailed a hero. The deeper wound is most likely going to be the second families secret because there is never going to be an opportunity for that secret to come to the surface. The first family lost contact with their son, who took off to the west, but at least they don't have to cover up a dirty secret any longer and their family is all on the same page. Lies and secrets tear groups of people apart, no matter what we tell ourselves about "saving them from the ugly truth", we are just saving ourselves from having to tell them something we don't want to.
The first boy, the one who's father was a criminal and died was a better kid, didn't seem to be heading down a negative path, until he met the second boy, who's father was a hero and a "good" guy. The second boy was a hardcore drug user, a partier, a manipulator of other people, and frankly, not the kind of boy your parents want you hanging out with. This is an example of nurture over nature, the first kid was raised by a good mother and step-father, the other second was raised by a distant father and divorced parents, yet the first kid was leading the better life.
I didn't really like the movie overall, but it did get me to think about some interesting things, which I did like. And I liked the soundtrack a lot. Maybe you should check it out if you